Above all, the Army will emphasize innovative training
methods that use a mix of both computer simulations, some even
modeled on popular games like World of
Warcraft, and real-world scenarios tied to
specific areas where "regionally
aligned" units are likely to deploy.

"Normally, we talk in modernization about equipment, but
it's about more than just our equipment,"
said Lt. Gen. Keith
Walker, the chief of "futures" for the Army's Fort
Monroe, Va.-based Training and Doctrine Command. Shrinking
budgets – compounded by lousy requirements, contractor disputes
and technological troubles – have forced the service to slow a
host of high-priority hardware programs,
from helicopters
and airborne sensorsto the
new Ground
Combat Vehicle. But, Walker told reporters on the eve
of his formal presentation to the AUSA conference this morning,
"we can mitigate some of our equipment delays by being smarter in
the way we organize our forces, train our forces , develop our
doctrine, and so on."

"This is not about additional money," Walker emphasized.
"It's about taking our new environment into account and improving
the way we invest what we have."

New training techniques look particularly promising to Army
leaders. "There is so much we can do in immersive training that
we have not yet done... using our existing network and using our
existing sensors," Walker said.

While Army leaders hasten to say they don't want to do away
with live training in the field, they see new – and inexpensive –
ways to supplement it with simulations. "Some people almost do
jack into the Matrix,"
said Col.
Pat White, deputy commander in charge of training for
the Army's Combined Arms Institute at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
"You can't replicate bullets flying at you, you cannot replicate
the mortars and the rockets that are in combat itself, the
physical-ness of that; but what we can replicate is the
complexity of that."

Though computers can't yet simulate the gut-wrenching
reality of combat, there are some "complexities" of modern
warfare that are prohibitively difficult to replicate on the
training range – especially in a tight budget environment – but
doable on computer. For example, in Afghanistan even lower-level
commanders are used to on-call support from drones, helicopters,
and manned aircraft. Back in home station because we are in the
united states of America that becomes problematic to replicate,"
said White. "Airspace is restricted; the FAA doesn't necessarily
allow us to fly our UAVS over towns like Phoenix." Instead, the
Army wants to add virtual aircraft to real-world training
events.

The goal is to integrate simulations and live exercises
into a single wargame. "Take Fort Hood [Texas] for example,"
White said. "If a brigade commander wishes to train his brigade,
there's not enough maneuver spaces nor are there enough live fire
ranges to take his entire brigade out" as a unit" – but he can
put one battalion out in the physical desert, a second in tank
simulators, and a third in a command post exercise where leaders
and staffs track virtual events on the actual computer networks
they would use to direct their troops in combat.

The 3rd Brigade of the
3rd Infantry Division will test
drive the new "Decisive Action Training Environment" (DATE) next
month at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California.
Just as in a traditional training exercise, "you will see
soldiers in their vehicles in the dirt at NTC," said White, but
new virtual elements will be overload on the wargames. "We'll do
two or three of those this year... Next calendar year, we'll
begin to see more of those."

Beyond the National Training Center, Fort Hood, Texas is
slated to receive installation of advanced training systems to
serve as a pilot for the new approach. Ultimately, the Army wants
to integrate real-world intelligence into the DATE network
so "regionally
aligned" units slated to deploy to a specific
region can do their wargames in virtual versions of the real
terrain. "If you're regionally aligned for a Korean contingency,"
White said, "you would go to the Korean part of the [virtual]
world and begin your training... so you understand what Korea
looks like in your particular area you might deploy
to."

The Army even wants to take a lesson from popular
"massively multiplayer" online games. "My son
plays World of Warcraft," said White.
"It's amazing how quickly they can distribute information and
make a plan," he went on. Players who may be thousands of miles
away from each other in real space use their headsets, keyboards,
and screens to coordinate the actions of their characters in the
game. Some in-game events involve hundreds of players interacting
online at once.

"Many, many people can participate in an event and learn
from it," White said of the technology's potential for Army
training. "We are attempting to create a [virtual] world... where
we can link individual soldiers and leaders in a training
environment that is not necessarily part of your 9-5 job at work,
to allow them to learn on their own at their own pace 24-7...
We're in the pilot phase of that right now."

But can any number of wargames and simulators make up for
the Army's real-life lack of new equipment? Even in the
demoralizing drawdown of the 1990s, young officers had the new
technologies of the "digital
division" to get excited about. How can today's Army
prove its continued relevance in the post-war era to a generation
of post-9/11 veterans deciding whether
to stay in uniform or get out?

"This is an incredible challenge that I know the Army
senior leadership is very much concerned about," said Lt. Gen.
Walker in a follow-up call to AOL Defense,"
he said. "My oldest daughter and both of my sons joined the Army
and they've been to Iraq and Afghanistan a lot, so I get plenty
of feedback... If you ask some young leader, 'What is it that
keeps you in the Army,' it's not cool equipment; it is leading
people."

So, Walker went on, "the challenge we've got is to make
sure those opportunities are there even though it's not war." The
Army's betting that virtual training can help provide those human
interactions that keep soldiers motivated and sharp.